


Pan over to that Bi in the corner

by Frog_that_writes



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Bisexual Paul Matthews, F/F, Humour, Wonderful gay teen alice, but it isn't really the focus of this, heads up that theres a lot of talk about bill and his wife fighting in the background, nothing physical but alice talks about having to expereince them fighting a lot, takes place before the events of the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:40:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23457970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frog_that_writes/pseuds/Frog_that_writes
Summary: Alice looks for a place to get out of the house to avoid listening to her parents fighting. One accidental coming out later, and she may just help Paul discover something about himself along the way.
Relationships: Alice & Paul Matthews, Alice/Deb (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 75





	Pan over to that Bi in the corner

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by a tumblr you can find here [ here to as soon as i find it! you should go check out their account]()

Alice loved her Uncle Paul. She loved him enough that she called him Uncle Paul even though he wasn't related to her in any way. She had such fond memories of childhood days spent babbling about her favorite Disney movies to him every time he came over for dinner. She had somewhat less fond but still enjoyable memories of preteen days spent hiding at his apartment playing Mario Kart when her parent's arguing got too much. That was the nice thing about Hatchetfeild; It was a town big enough for one of everything, and that included it's one apartment complex but she and Paul called home. He was only ever a floor and a few doors away. 

The point was, Uncle Paul was a great guy. A little too eccentric in some ways and a little too plain in others, but an all-around great babysitter when she managed to coerce him into watching movies with music in them. 

That's probably why Alice had such conflicting feelings about coming out to him. She knew he wouldn't fly off the handles and call her a devil child or anything, but there was always a chance he would be less than happy with it. Tell her parents, call a priest, whatever it was boring cishet Hatchetfeild guys did. 

But in the end, she hadn't even made a conscious decision to do it. Her parents' fighting was shaking the walls and she needed out of the house  _ now.  _ Deb was out of the question, she was out with the smoke club and Alice wanted to feel better, not more alienated. Plus, it was nine p.m. She didn't want to have to go out this late.

But Uncle Paul never had any plans, especially not on a Wednesday night, and he was always willing to see her.

So that's how she ended up sitting on his couch, fluffy gray cat in her lap and mug of hot chocolate in her hands. She knew usually Paul was a little more uneasy about beverages in the living room, but something in her face must have shown how badly she needed this, so he didn't say anything. 

She rubbed Ellie the cat's head and smiled as she took a drink. Uncle Paul made the best fucking hot chocolate. He always said the secret ingredient was just doing whatever the recipe on the bag said. What a genius. 

"How's school going?" Paul asked as he sat beside her, clutching an identical mug. He was already in pajamas, which, yeah, nine in the afternoon ( _ hey! Accidental panic! reference! She'll have to tell Deb about that, she would probably pretend it was funny for her)  _ and he looked comfortable as he brushed cat fur off his couch. Maybe that was why she let her guard down so much. 

"Oh, it's good y'know. I don't really have any  _ friends- _ friends, but Deb's friends are kind of my friends? You know how it is."

"I spent my high school years alternating between eating lunch in the library or my math classroom, I know a thing or two about not having friends" Paul deadpanned before his tone turned curious. "Who's this Deb girl? I don't remember hearing about her before."

"She's my girlfriend," Alice's traitorous mouth said before her brain could catch up. She just barely remembered not to slap a hand on her mouth to avoid dumping hot chocolate everywhere. She doubted Elie would appreciate that much. 

"Oh?" Paul asked. "First I'm hearing about this."

"Yeah," Alice laughed nervously. "Well, it's the first I'm saying about it. Sorry, that sounds stupid. You're the first person I've told, is what I mean."

"Well, as long as she's nice that's fine. Not that I don't trust your choice in girls."

Okay, good start. Uncle Paul looked nervous, but that wasn’t unusual. He kind of always looked nervous. 

"Oh no, Deb's a total trainwreck. She dropped out two years ago and works at the gas station now. I think she's twenty, but she won't tell me exactly how old she is. It's hard to tell if she buys all that alcohol or just steals it when her boss is out."

She saw Paul's eyes fly open in concern. 

"Kidding! She just smokes a lot of pot."

"Oh," he laughed, though Alice noticed it was a little shaky. He was too easy sometimes. "That's- good."

"Yeah," she took another long drink, and there was silence except for the episode of  _ X-files  _ playing on his TV. 

"So, you're gay then?" 

Oh no. She thought she had hit this one out of the park, run around all the bases and touched that one different looking starting plate, but it turns out the ball had just gotten lost in a tree. Or something. Sports wasn't really her thing, okay?

"Uh, pan actually."

"Is that- is that like bisexual? I think I saw something online about it once but-"

"No, it's fine," Alice cut him off. "It's sort of like bi. Hard to explain, really without going on about queer rights for the entire night. Don't worry about it," she flashed him a smile.

He looked a little unsure, but returned his own grin none-the-less. 

That was good. Huh, maybe she could actually try coming out to her parents next. 

Alice felt dread pool in her stomach and abandoned the thought. Maybe someday.

They were fighting again. 

Well, again implied they ever really stopped. They didn’t. She felt like her life was slowly becoming a sea of slammed doors and angry silences where she could feel arguments building in her parents like lightning in a storm cloud. It was a constant oppressive barrage of glares sent at each other over her heard, and Alice was going fucking crazy. 

Uncle Paul’s apartment was practically her safe haven. It was always calm there, besides for the one time Elie had managed to tear open an entire pack of her treats and had spent the night zooming laps around the cramped living area. But it was a place to be herself, and that’s all Alice really wanted. 

“Look at her in this picture! Isn’t she so cute! She was mad at me for taking this at first because she thought she looks bad, but then I promised not to show anyone. Oops, guess I showed you.”

“Uh-uh. Alice, is that a joint in her hand?” Paul’s voice was slightly tight, but he wasn’t red-faced like he was when he was genuinely upset or worried about something. He was just too straight-laced.

“Oh yeah.” Alice flipped her phone around and looked closer at the slightly blurry photo she had been showing off. “Guess so.” She tucked her phone into her pocket.

“That’s nice. Tell me more about Deb, right now my only picture of her is a lot of weed and it’s not exactly making me feel great.”

“Well, she’s really funny,” Alice cut herself off with what was probably a bit too dramatic of a dreamy sigh. “And really nice too. She never lets the rest of the club bully me into smoking.”

“Oh!” Paul visibly brightened. “That’s good then, you should never feel pressured to do things you don’t want to do.” 

“I know Uncle Paul,” she rolled her eyes with a fond grin. Really, he was more of a dad than her own dad these days. The thought made her a bit sad to think about, but also infinitely more thankful for the man in front of her.

“She’s also pan, like me, and super into greek mythology. She likes to write these modern interpretations of the gods, and they aren’t like,  _ super  _ factual, but they’re still really good, y’know?”

“A hobby! That’s reassuring,” Paul teased. She rolled her eyes again, but she supposed it was fair. She would be a bit worried about him if he started dating a girl who’s only personality was being a pot-head. Hard to build a relationship with someone who’s perpetually high. Suddenly Paul turned a bit hesitant.

“I actually have a question about er- queer stuff, is that the right word? Queer? If you don’t mind.”

“I mean, some people would probably get super pissed at you saying queer, but those people are mostly terfs who should fuck off, so go for it. What’s the question?” He blinked, clearly a bit overwhelmed, but cleared his throat and continued.

“I don’t really get being bi,” he said. 

“Oh,” Alice said, voice a bit icy and good mood gone with the single sentence. “What don’t you get?”

“Well, I saw people online saying that it’s fine if you’re more attracted to one gender than the other, but isn’t everyone a little attracted to your own gender? I thought being bi would mean you liked the other gender equally, but it’s kind of confusing…”

Well, there was a lot there. Alice stared for a moment as her brain tried to catch up with her uncle’s rambling. What the fuck was he talking about?   
“Okay, so to be clear you aren’t trying to invalidate anyone, right?”

“No!” He looked slightly horrified that he had come across that way. “Not at all. I just thought that if you’re only a little bit attracted to your own gender, that would be the same thing as being straight, right?”

“What?”

“I was doing all this research because I wanted to be able to talk to you about this stuff-” her heart instantly warmed, and she felt bad for assuming the worst moments ago “- but I just don’t understand it. Like, I’ve always been somewhat attracted to men, but I’m straight.”

“Paul, I think you’re just bisexual.”

He looked as though he was going to argue for a moment before deflating. 

“Shit, really?”

“Most straight guys don’t like other guys.”

“Shit,  _ really? _ ” He repeated. She laughed, but he didn’t look too offended. “I don’t know what to do with this information.”

“Seduce my dad out of his failing marriage? I don’t know man, up to you.”

“Alice!” He looked slightly scandalized.

“Oh, so I can say fuck but I can’t point out facts? Okay, hetero.”

“Watch your tone.” She law him fighting back laughter. “Don’t call me hetero, it’ll confuse my already ruined concept of self.”

“Tough,” Alice shot back, smiling. 

Secretly, she found herself reveling in this revelation as they continued to play bicker. Usually, it was the older person’s job to be the wise mentor, but her life was falling apart around her, and wasn’t it her queer-given right to try to convince Paul to drink iced coffee for the sake of all bisexuals everywhere?

It was no wonder she felt so comfortable being herself around him after all. There was always that stereotype about gays flocking together. 

**Author's Note:**

> I had fun writing this! I hope no one sees paul and Alice's relationship as anything weird, she genuinely sees him as family and nothing else, and he just wants to help out a kid in a crappy situation. nothing untoward.  
> please leave a comment or a kudo if you enjoyed! I didn't really get the characterization right, but hopefully next time I write these characters it'll be better!


End file.
